Aarni's Blog

Our very first iPad app, Thinking Portfolio® Risk Analysis, is now available on App Store.

The app helps you in the identification and analysis of project risks and opportunities. You can use it effectively in all kinds of projects, large and small.

Studies suggest that around a third of all projects fail. One of the most under-reported areas of project failure is risk management. In many cases the management has neglected proactive risk identification, analysis, and mitigation. All too often project managers and steering groups address problems reactively, causing schedules and budgets to be exceeded. This leads to schedule slippage, budget overruns, and staff overtime, even burnout.

Thinking Portfolio® Risk Analysis makes proactive project risk identification and analysis an engaging, positive experience.

The application is intuitive, versatile, and visual. It makes it easy to determine and discuss project risks and opportunities, analyze them visually, and share the results within the project management team.

Check it out at http://www.thinkingportfolio.com/riskanalysis/ or go directly to App Store to buy it.

I just devoured Find Your Next by Andrea Kates. What a timely book! She addresses the very questions that many companies are struggling with. The business environment has changed enormously in the last ten or even five years, and companies need new ways of thinking in order to prosper. This book offers tools for just that.

The next great thing in your business can begin when someone in your organization has an idea or a hunch. Kates writes that until now, the journey to follow that idea would have started with dissection; measuring strengths, evaluating past results, and scrutinizing industry peers. The existing silos of thinking would define the options for an analysis. But she insists that the new way of thinking is not to tweak each element individually. The way to go is to create something bigger and all-inclusive, and then create a game plan how to get there

Find Your Next taps into new patterns that have been proven to drive business growth. These patterns draw inspiration from genomics. Scientists have been able to identify, map, and learn from patterns of DNA. In the same way, you can break down the core DNA of your company into basic elements. 

Kates presents a framework of six key elements of business DNA that define the success of a company. The six elements of the business genome are:

1. Product and service innovation
2. Customer impact
3. Process design
4. Talent and leadership
5. Secret sauce
6. Trendability

A company that wants to "find its next" can use the framework as a system to sort through ideas and use them to create a new, integrated combination. Kates underlines that business genomics combines art and science; identification of business opportunities is part intuition, part analysis. "The last era was about models and forecasting. Today's era is about foresight."

The sections detailing the use of the six elements of the business genome contain great ideas and tools for business developers. Kates also introduces a four-step process to use the framework. The process starts with simple questions:

• Are you at risk of becoming obsolete? Are you facing a shift in your market?
• Are you off-trend?
• Do you have a hunch that there's a new direction you should be pursuing?

One of the best ideas I got from the book is to use other industries as a source of new perspective. Often the signs of your future already exist in related and even unrelated industries. Influences from other industries are shaping customer requirements and that is happening at a faster pace than ever before.

Kates refers many times to the new role of the customer. The product and service discussion belongs to the customer now and it is often global. Manipulating customers to tell us what we want to hear does not translate into market leadership. Brands are defined by customers not by the companies that own them.

Companies face challenges internally as well. “Old school” leaders have learned that new generations have values, modes of communication, and beliefs that are foreign to them. Diversity is on the rise and employee motivation is not based on money alone. 

"The age of innovation is here to stay, and the bar for inventiveness will only continue to get higher," Kates claims. However, she draws attention to a disturbing fact. Leaders might want their organizations to be more innovative, but often fill their top positions with non-innovators.

The book presents great case studies of the way genome thinking works. Most examples are from B2C companies, but many of the ideas are applicable to B2B. In fact, the book encourages cross-disciplinary thinking. "Don't think industry-specific, think focus-specific," she advises.

I second Seth Godin's praise for the book: "Every great strategic thinker uses the ideas in this book...but it took Andrea Kates to write them down for the rest of us."  I'm certainly going to recommend Find Your Next to my clients!

Find Your Next: Using the Business Genome Approach to Find Your Company’s Next Competitive Edge, at amazon.com

If you are a solo consultant or run a small consultancy, you can face a situation where you either lack the manpower or the expertise to serve prospective clients. In that case partnering could be a feasible solution. There are three basic ways to invigorate your business through partnering: operational, tactical, and strategic.

Operational partnership

If you just need "more hands," an operational partnership is the way to go. Connect with peers or junior consultants who can work side by side with you. For example if you need to interview 100 people or do some other resource-intensive work you could use a trusted companion. 

A good operational partner respects your business relationships with your clients. However, I recommend that you have a mutual written agreement with your partner. In the agreement, define the distribution of work, the responsibilities, and the duties of both parties.

Operational partnerships can offer cost savings and increase your capacity.

Tactical partnership

When you see that you could offer more by having a good partner, then you are building a tactical partnership. For example a marketing consultant could partner a sales expert or an R&D consultant.

Sometimes a client needs services in locations where you cannot operate easily. Form a partnership with a local consultant to serve your client optimally.

Tactical partnerships expand your reach and they open new opportunities when partners market each other's services.

Strategic partnership

If you and your partnering company together can offer something unique that is vitally important for both parties, you are in a strategic partnership.

I know examples where a large and a small organization have created a successful partnership. The smaller consultancy is the innovator whereas the larger has an extensive clientele that needs the innovative solutions that the companies create together.

Strategic partners share a vision, they have the same kinds of values, and they want to work towards common goals. They exchange and accumulate knowledge openly with each other and develop their abilities together.

Strategic partnerships can lead to a unique position in the minds of the clients. If implemented correctly, they can also lead to growth that both partners would not be able to create on their own. Strategic partnerships are, however, very demanding and are seldom realized as planned.

Success factors

Whatever your partnership model is, it must be based on mutual trust, open communication, and a real win-win opportunity. Written agreements are necessary, but it is more important to understand why you are partnering and how much effort both parties are prepared to take in order to make partnering successful. Finally, it is the client who decides if your model creates a triple-win situation.

Photo: iStockphoto

Every consulting assignment is a learning and development opportunity. One good way to pass on that learning to future clients is to turn your experience into consulting tools. Consulting tools are methods, processes, templates, or software that you can use repeatedly, but with sensibility, to the client’s specific needs.

Business Consulting Buzz published my two guest posts this week:

From Scenarios to Vision – A Case Study

and 

Creating New Consulting Tools

In these articles I share my experiences on using and developing tools for managment consulting.

A Finnish medical startup, Laastari Lähiklinikka (freely translated as “Band-aid Corner Clinic”), presented their brilliant new service model at a seminar arranged by User Intelligence and SC5. Laastari has built a light version of a medical clinic for getting quick help on typical ailments: sinusitis, ophthalmitis, urethritis, and so on. They also give vaccinations. iPads play an important role in their service model.

Our health care system has been built around large units with big overheads. To treat a small ailment is costly, and the costs are going up all the time. The founders of Laastari started off by re-thinking the whole service model. Instead of a health care center they offer one room in a shopping mall. There’s a nurse, a couple of chairs, some small equipment, and an iPad.

You can pop in the clinic without reservation, and your visit lasts less than 15 minutes. The nurse uses iPad software. She or he writes down your name and social security number, and the iPad software offers a menu of typical illnesses. After the first selection the system shows a set of yes/no questions. 

After completing the questions the nurse sends the diagnosis to a remotely located doctor. The doctor’s iPad gives an alert; the doctor reviews the diagnosis and selects a proper medication. If you have visited the clinic before, they already know your possible allergies and previous treatments. If there’s a need to get a picture of your infected ear, for example, the nurse can send it along with the diagnosis.

Ville Öhman of Laastari emphasized that they have considered patient safety carefully. If the diagnosis shows that this time your ailment needs a more thorough investigation, they’ll send you to a hospital with a printed description of your diagnosis. Having a professional diagnosis at hand speeds up the process at the hospital. They don’t charge you in that case.

You pay a lump sum for the visit, now € 45. If you want a vaccination, they charge € 25 plus the price of the vaccine. The clinic sends the prescription to the nearest apothecary where you can pick up your medication.

There is a pool of doctors taking part in the service. They have been enthusiastic about the new service model. It is convenient for the patient and for the doctor, and the pricing is reasonable. The patients’ feedback has been overwhelmingly positive as well.

A company has two basic kinds of project: external and internal. External projects have a paying customer; they make money, but internal projects waste it. At least that seems to be the sentiment in many firms. People think that internal projects are less valuable and less critical.

The truth is that internal projects require the same level of attention and dedication as external projects. They use cash generated from customer projects to strive for business results: competitive advantage, cost savings or increased revenues.

As a management consultant I’ve helped clients in the planning and execution of internal development projects. Time after time the same issues seem to hamper initiatives. Here are some of the most typical, and my ideas on how managers could avoid them. 

Plan steps that deliver results fast

A long change program with results expected far in the future is not going to create a feeling of urgency and commitment. Break down a large project into manageable bits that deliver visible results fast. The more concrete and measurable the results are, the better.

Give employees time for the project

Few employees are lucky enough to get a full time post working on an internal project. Most workers have to take care of everyday business first; only when this is completed can they use what little time is left for the project. They cannot give their best when their minds are constantly struggling with other issues.

You should give the employee a whole day in a week, or a week in a month when he or she can concentrate solely on the project. Offer a replacement to cover their usual role for that period, and communicate the arrangement to the employee’s colleagues and managers. Make sure to support the employee in situations when the requirements of the project and their “normal” work collide.

Share a simple project model

Companies have great models for customer project deliveries. Still, many companies lack basic project methodologies and practices internally.

Practically all personnel should undertake basic project training. A company must have a simple, generic project management model and manual. Those who are going to be named project managers should receive training or mentoring before the project kicks off.

Communicate

The managers who initiate a project have certain goals in mind. They know why the project is necessary and why it is beneficial. Unfortunately, others can see the project as one more distraction with little or no results.

People are more accepting of change when they understand why it is necessary and what’s in it for them. It may sound like a cliché, but bi-directional communication is a key to project success. Showing an example is a great way to communicate.

Give credit

A successful customer project not only brings in money, but also gets attention. The project team receives an extra bonus or other rewards. Sometimes a project is noted in the media. How often are people involved in internal initiatives awarded due credit?

Make internal projects known in the company and reward success. That way you’ll ensure you have an even more motivated project team next time around.

Follow up

It is amazing to hear from time to time that companies don’t measure the effect of a project. It is no wonder people think that nothing has changed and that internal projects are a waste of time.

Plan how to follow up on the results after the project is completed. Making these results public and discussing them is an effective way to learn and improve project performance in the future.

Photo: iStockphoto

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, was originally a very shy guy. In his book iWoz he writes, “Most inventors and engineer I’ve met are like me–they’re shy and live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists.”

Steve writes that, “artist work best alone–best outside of corporate environments, best where they can control an invention’s design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee.” He does not believe that anything really revolutionary has ever been invented by a committee. Why? Because the committee would never agree on it.

Steve’s thoughts are perhaps against the mainstream that emphasizes teamwork and “innovation processes”.  Steve promotes the idea of an engineer who thinks how to create the best possible end result with the fewest number of components. He says, however, that in his entire life he has only seen about twenty engineers who really exemplify that artistic perfection.

Steve gives his advice to “that rare engineer who’s an inventor and also an artist”. The advice is: work alone. He says that if you’re a young inventor who wants to change the world, a corporate environment is the wrong place for you.

“You’re going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you’re working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team. That means that you’re probably going to have to do what I did. Do your projects as moonlighting, with limited money and limited resources. But man, it’ll be worth it in the end.”

The book on amazon.com: iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

Is there life outside of meetings? A manager is either in a meeting or on the way to a meeting. You can always ask if all the appointments are necessary, but one thing is sure: it is a pain to schedule a meeting.

A typical scenario is that one person sends emails to the attendees from different companies and organizations. The message contains a list of possible dates and times. Gradually people respond and a date and time that seems to suits everyone is about to emerge. Finally one person, probably one whose attendance is very important, sends a message saying that none of those dates is possible. He or she may suggest another date and the messaging starts all over again.

On the day of the meeting everything seems to be all right, but not quite. The person who wanted to change the date does not show up, because of an urgency elsewhere.

I don’t know if anyone has calculated how much time and money is wasted because of these kinds of incidents. I think that one cure is to radically reduce the number of large face-to-face meetings.  You should really think if a meeting is necessary and if there are other ways to work together and discuss. This is also a learning issue. People should take time and some effort to learn new ways to communicate and collaborate. Tools for that are already there.